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The Hoover Dam, on the border of Arizona and Nevada, provides water and electricity for Las Vegas

So just how powerful are the turbines in the Hoover Dam?

There 17 main turbines in the Hoover Powerplant – nine on the Arizona wing and eight on the Nevada wing.

The Hoover Dam can produce enough energy to serve the annual electrical needs of 1.3 million people in Arizona, southern California, and southern Nevada.

But the turbines are incredibly powerful. A plant upgrade in 1993 means there are fifteen 178,000 horsepower, one 100,000 horsepower, and one 86,000 horsepower Francis-type vertical hydraulic turbines in the Hoover powerplant.

Water flows through large pipes inside the dam and turns the turbine. The turbine turns a shaft which rotates a series of magnets past copper coils and a generator to produce electricity.

The water’s force on the blades of the turbine turns a rotor – a series of magnets – which is the rotating portion of the generator where a magnetic field is created.